cultural diplomacyNPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94NPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94cultural diplomacyMon, 15 Aug 2016 01:39:13 +0000cultural diplomacyhttp://kgou.org
Beyond the athletic competition, feats of strength, and patriotic triumph, the Olympics serve as a moment where countries can come together and put their differences aside. But politics has played out during the first week of competition. Russia’s athletes haven’t received the warmest welcome in Rio de Janeiro after widespread allegations of state-sponsored doping that nearly saw the entire team banned from the 2016 Summer Games. The tensions has been noticeable in the Aquatics Stadium, especially after swimmer Lilly King wagged her finger immediately after winning the gold medal over second-place finisher Yulia Efimova in the 100-meter breaststroke final. With a finger wag to prove it, contempt for doping spilled over into the Olympic pool pic.twitter.com/35SJzlWRjI — NYT Sports (@NYTSports) August 10, 2016“This has turned into what that Russian competitor is calling ‘the new Cold War,’" University of Oklahoma College of International Studies assistant dean and comparative politicsWhether Positive Or Negative, ‘Sports Diplomacy’ Shines During Rio Olympicshttp://kgou.org/post/whether-positive-or-negative-sports-diplomacy-shines-during-rio-olympics
80445 as http://kgou.orgSat, 13 Aug 2016 11:04:00 +0000Whether Positive Or Negative, ‘Sports Diplomacy’ Shines During Rio Olympics Editor's Note: This interview originally aired March 22, 2013. Audiences most likely know Egyptian-American stand-up comedian Ahmed Ahmed as a member of the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour. “Comedians have become, most recently, cultural ambassadors of the world,” Ahmed said. “Whether you're in Africa, or America, or Russia, or Asia, laughter is the common language of the world.” The group of four Middle Eastern comedians derived their name from President Bush’s 2002 State of the Union address, where he used the term to describe Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. Ahmed directed the 2011 documentary Just Like Us, which followed several international stand-up comedians through Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Lebanon while highlighting the culture of the Middle Eastern countries. “My background is Egyptian-American, but then I was raised Muslim, and I do this whole explanation…that there's a difference between Arabs and Muslims,” Ahmed said. “So, trying to decipher that is another element to theBest of 'World Views': Laughter As The 'Common Language Of The World'http://kgou.org/post/best-world-views-laughter-common-language-world
75895 as http://kgou.orgFri, 10 Jun 2016 18:48:00 +0000Best of 'World Views': Laughter As The 'Common Language Of The World' Earlier this year, Oklahoma violinist Kyle Dillingham and his acoustic trio Horseshoe Road traveled across the Far East on behalf of the American Music Abroad program. The group traveled to South Korea, the Republic of China (Taiwan), Far East Russia and Myanmar. “Music really is the international language,” Dillingham says. "It's a way to send musicians in to hopefully bring a positive image and positive experience/encounter for the citizens of these countries." Myanmar’s foreign relations have improved drastically in the past few years as the military junta relinquishes more and more control of the government. In 2011, it also released the prominent human rights activist Aung San Suu Kyi. "Being there gave us an incredible opportunity, historically speaking,” Dillingham says. "We were the very first American band that the Myanmar government allowed the U.S. Embassy to program publicly.” While in the country’s largest city Yangon, Horseshoe Road participated in a media interview. TheFiddling In Foreign Lands: Oklahoma's Horseshoe Road Tours The Pacific Rimhttp://kgou.org/post/fiddling-foreign-lands-oklahomas-horseshoe-road-tours-pacific-rim
7767 as http://kgou.orgMon, 17 Jun 2013 12:31:13 +0000Fiddling In Foreign Lands: Oklahoma's Horseshoe Road Tours The Pacific Rim Suzette Grillot reports from Istanbul, where she speaks with University of Oklahoma economist Firat Demir about the international response to Monday's deadly tornado in Moore, Okla., and political problems facing Turkey. University of Oregon political scientist Richard Kraus joins the program for a conversation about how art and culture become a testing ground between the United States and China. He's the author of author of Pianos and Politics in China: Middle-Class Ambitions and the Struggle over Western Music. World Views: May 24, 2013http://kgou.org/post/world-views-may-24-2013
6596 as http://kgou.orgFri, 24 May 2013 21:30:00 +0000World Views: May 24, 2013 Art, culture, and politics are closely linked in China, and until the mid-1960s Cultural Revolution government officials viewed Western classical music as an unwelcome outsider. “For a while the piano was regarded as the ultimate expression of the bourgeoisie,” says Richard Kraus, a University of Oregon political scientist and the author of Pianos and Politics in China: Middle-Class Ambitions and the Struggle over Western Music. “[Then] Mao's wife decided she liked the piano, and there was then sort of the idea that you need to adapt Western technology and art to serve Chinese political purposes. So after about 1968 the piano was alright.” Why the Piano is a Political Prop in Chinahttp://kgou.org/post/why-piano-political-prop-china
6513 as http://kgou.orgThu, 23 May 2013 21:07:27 +0000Why the Piano is a Political Prop in China University of Oklahoma political economist and European Union expert Mitchell Smith joins the program for a conversation about the eurozone's economy slipping further into recession, and the American kicked out of Russia over accusations of spying for the CIA. Veteran diplomat Richard Arndt speaks with Suzette Grillot and Joshua Landis about how the national security state changed U.S. diplomatic relations. He's the author of The First Resort of Kings: American Cultural Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century. World Views: May 17, 2013http://kgou.org/post/world-views-may-17-2013
6141 as http://kgou.orgFri, 17 May 2013 21:30:00 +0000World Views: May 17, 2013 Earlier this year an independent review by veteran diplomat Thomas Pickering and retired Adm. Mike Mullen slammed the U.S. State Department for inadequate security at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi before the September 11, 2012 attacks that killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador. “The styles of public diplomacy are now constrained by our fear,” says Richard Arndt, a veteran U.S. diplomat and the author of The First Resort of Kings: American Cultural Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century. ”Which after all is what terrorists try to produce, and which they've amply succeeded in.” Arndt says as the United States reestablished diplomatic relations with European countries after World War II, the goal was to build the most beautiful embassies possible. Evolution Of Embassy Construction Shows The Terrorists Wonhttp://kgou.org/post/evolution-embassy-construction-shows-terrorists-won
5857 as http://kgou.orgTue, 14 May 2013 16:05:35 +0000Evolution Of Embassy Construction Shows The Terrorists Won On Tuesday the U.N. General Assembly approved a treaty to regulate the global arms trade, and the panel explores what role the CIA is playing in Arab and Turkish military aid to Syria. Ambassador Cynthia Schneider joins Suzette Grillot and Joshua Landis to discuss how culture influenced her diplomacy while representing the United States in the Netherlands between 1998 and 2001. World Views: April 5, 2013http://kgou.org/post/world-views-april-5-2013
3321 as http://kgou.orgFri, 05 Apr 2013 21:30:00 +0000World Views: April 5, 2013 While serving as the U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands in 2001, Cynthia Schneider used Hollywood to approach sensitive drug issues between American and Dutch officials. Schneider invited embassy staffers focusing on drugs, and their counterparts in the Dutch Ministry of Justice, to a screening of Steven Soderbergh’s Oscar-winning film Traffic. “It's a very powerful film that shows the intricacies of drug trafficking, and really shows how complicated it is,” Schneider says. “That was a fantastic experience because it kind of leveled the playing ground, and after seeing that film together we were able to have the most honest, direct conversation that we ever had, and really make progress.” How Diplomacy Through Culture Can "Hold Up a Mirror" to Governmenthttp://kgou.org/post/how-diplomacy-through-culture-can-hold-mirror-government
3212 as http://kgou.orgThu, 04 Apr 2013 14:31:52 +0000How Diplomacy Through Culture Can "Hold Up a Mirror" to Government Audiences most likely know Egyptian-American stand-up comedian Ahmed Ahmed as a member of the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour. “Comedians have become, most recently, cultural ambassadors of the world,” Ahmed said. “Whether you're in Africa, or America, or Russia, or Asia, laughter is the common language of the world.” Laughter As The 'Common Language Of The World'http://kgou.org/post/laughter-common-language-world
2328 as http://kgou.orgFri, 22 Mar 2013 16:43:19 +0000Laughter As The 'Common Language Of The World'Brian Hardzinski On March 2, the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art opened a recently-reassembled exhibit of modern American art the U.S. State Department recalled from an overseas tour in the 1940’s. In 1946, Harry Truman had been in the White House for a little more than a year after unexpectedly inheriting the Presidency in the closing days of World War II. The end of that war, and Franklin Roosevelt’s death, meant anti-New Deal resentment bubbling to the surface since the late 1930’s could finally boil over. A new Republican majority elected to both the U.S. House and Senate in the fall solidified a bi-partisan conservative skepticism of foreign entanglement that clashed with a so-called “liberal internationalism” within the U.S. Department of State. A month before those mid-term elections, the State Department developed an exhibit of 117 paintings to tour politically unstable countries in Eastern Europe and Latin America. “The art exhibition was a way to convince Europeans that Americans wereWhy ''Advancing American Art'' Was Interruptedhttp://kgou.org/post/why-advancing-american-art-was-interrupted
1097 as http://kgou.orgFri, 01 Mar 2013 18:46:33 +0000Why ''Advancing American Art'' Was Interrupted